As I mentioned in the last post, I have been having a go at replicating the Blue Cheese Ice Cream that we were served atop a salad in Bodega Aranda and which was so delicious. I believe I have achieved success.

As a basic recipe I started with one for a blue cheese salad dressing that I learnt from Pam Smith, when I was working at her Restaurante Sin Niumero in Mojacar many moons ago. It is so simple yet wonderful that I am surprised that it is not more widely known. All you need is blue cheese, thick or whipping cream and black pepper.

Then to adapt the recipe for mousse or ice cream the proportions of the ingredients are changed.

To make the salad dressing you need about one quarter volume blue cheese to three quarters cream. Put both in the food processor and beat until well mixed and the cream has started to thicken. Be careful not to overbeat or the mix may curdle. This happens very easily in the hot summer heat here. The dressing will further thicken in the fridge, so you can stop beating when the dressing is a little less thick than you want the end result to be.

Season with black pepper. There is no need for salt as the cheese will have enough in it already.

Store in the fridge until needed. It will keep for up to three days.

The mousse I like to serve with fruit to offset the sweetness of it. As fruit ripens on the farm, any that is not eaten fresh is preserved. Here I have pears poached in sugar syrup flavoured with cardamoms and saffron. They are put into sterilised jars when hot and then will keep up to three years if kept in a cool dark place. They then provide the basis for a quick and easy dessert.

When I come to serve the pears, I drain off the syrup which I then reduce by putting it in a pan, bringing it to the boil and continuing to simmer it until it is thickened and viscous. Let it then cool then drizzle over the whole dish when serving.

For the mousse the proportion of cheese to cream is equal and I like to leave some texture to the cheese as you can see above. But if you prefer a smooth mousse then beat a bit more. If you are serving the mousse with fruit then the pepper is optional.

To ensure that the ice cream does not set too hard the choice of cheese is important. It needs to be a full fat blue cheese like Stilton, Roquefort or Cabrales. It is tempting to imagine that a soft cheese would give better results, but these have more water in them which freezes very hard.

The proportions again are half cheese half cream. Beat them together well. Season with black pepper and freeze.

When you come to serve the ice cream, you may need to transfer it from the freezer to the fridge half and hour to an hour before needed so that it can soften a little, it depends on the temperature of your freezer.

A reminder that the original salad we were served was Corn salad, Tomatoes, Pine Nuts, Walnuts and Raisins with the Ice Cream in a mound on top. The waitress then dressed the salad with Olive oil and sherry vinegar before cutting up the ice cream and then folding it gently into the salad.

For my salad, pictured at the beginning of this post, I replaced the corn salad with some mild Endive leaves and I lightly toasted the nuts to bring out their flavour. The coolness of the ice cream combined with the slight bitterness of the leaves and the warmth of the nuts was wonderful, even on a cold wet day like today, and would be even better on a hot summers day.

After visiting the central market in Almeria we had worked up an appetite for lunch, and remembered that this ancient tapas bar was not far away.

Having installed ourselves at a table we asked the waitress to bring us a selection of what was good at the moment. She suggested the house salad, a couple of plates of fish and fried potatoes topped with broken eggs and the local made chorizo and morcilla. Perfect we said, not realising what culinary delights lay behind these simple descriptions.

The house salad arrived. Rich green corn salad, walnuts, pine nuts, raisins, and a halo of tomatoes surrounding a mound of blue cheese ice cream. The waitress had a small bowl of dressing – olive oil and sherry vinegar with seasonings – which she poured over the salad, then she cut the ice cream into pieces and gently mixed it with the salad.

It was heavenly. I am working on a recipe for the ice cream – maybe have it perfected for the next post.

The fish course was next –

Fillets of baby Cod and Smelts in light batter and fried served with the best Ajo Blanco I have ever tasted. You could taste the slight bitterness of the almonds, a hint of garlic that was not overpowering, the sauce was made smooth with bread and olive oil and balanced with white wine vinegar.

Jureles en Escabeche. Escabeche is a way of mildly pickling fish. It is gently poached in a broth of olive oil, white wine vinegar and water which is flavoured with onions, peppercorns, saffron and bayleaves. Frequently smoky Pimenton is added as well, but in this dish of small fish it wasn’t needed.

Next was the Potatoes with Chorizo, Morcilla and broken eggs.

To finish the meal a succulent large date each, dark chocolate covered raisins and mint tea.

This morning I have been out in my huerta doing gardening jobs. I have planted out seedlings of onions, broad beans and escarole. Runner beans have had supports and string put up for them to climb. Furrows have been tidied up to stop the irrigation water wandering off in the wrong direction. Grapes and dates have been picked. And I have started sowing garlics which will slowly grow over the winter and be ready to harvest in April or May.

But all is not well.

It is an unseasonable 23 degrees centigrade in the shade at mid-day. Those of you reading this while looking out at northern drizzle and cloud will think how lucky we are here to have such glorious weather. I am not gloating. In fact I am going to behave like a typical farmer and have a moan.

Illustrated above is the main object of my discontent. Cultivating in a hot climate means that our vegetables grow big fast, so we tend to have big bugs, the beautiful creature above is the size of my little finger, but if the cold weather does not come and kill them off, then they become mega bugs in mega numbers. So no potatoes or brassicas this year.

Public enemy number 2 is the Mediterranean Fruit Fly. Anyone who drinks wine will have met this fellow in their glass at some point. In an ideal cool autumn clementines and oranges will not start to ripen until just before Christmas by which time the fruit flies will have been decimated by the cold. In a warm autumn like this one, the citrus are already ripening and being eaten from the inside by the happy and warm flies.

To be fair the warmth is encouraging other crops to gallop along. The beetroot and turnips are making nice fat roots, as is the Florence fennel. I am inundated with red peppers, the basil lettuce is still going strong, the gleaming aubergines continue. All the endives are huge but a bit fierce in flavour, but that should calm down if the weather eventually cools.

This recipe came to me from Jean-Jacques De Bruin many moons ago. Since then whenever there is any leftover lamb, or in this case goat, from a roast, it is my first choice of dish to make with the meat. In fact it is that tasty that I have been know to deliberately buy a joint bigger than needed so that I can make this dish a couple of days later.

This pie differs from the Anglo version in that the moisture is provided by a copious amount of onions with no added liquid. A sauce is served on the side and is made more piquant by the addition of capers.

FRENCH STYLE SHEPHERDS PIE

Cooked lamb or goat – cut into small cubes

An volume roughly equal to the meat of onions cut small

lamb fat or dripping or olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Mashed potatoes to match the volume of meat and onions

Grated cheese for topping the potatoes

Having cut the onions, melt some fat in a shallow pan. If you have tasty lamb fat left from the roast, use this otherwise use dripping or olive oil.

Slowly fry the onions until starting to change colour to a light brown.

Add the meat cubes and stir to mix well. Season well.

Continue cooking until the meat is hot.

Put the meat and onions in the base of a shallow ovenproof dish.

Top with the mashed potatoes and sprinkle with the grated cheese.

Put in a hot oven – 180 Centigrade – for half an hour or so until golden brown on top.

Meanwhile make the sauce. If I have gravy left from the roast, I start with this and add half a teaspoon of chopped capers per person. Reheat the gravy and capers, then add cream to enrich the sauce and add extra volume.

If you don’t have gravy, then you can make a classic caper sauce. I will warn you that this involves what seems a large amount of butter, but then it is so rich that you don’t need too much on your pie.

CAPER SAUCE – enough for about 4 people

1 Egg yolk

1 tablespoon vinegar from the capers

1 tablespoon water

100 grams butter at room temperature

2 teaspoons chopped capers

salt and freshly ground black pepper

Find a bowl that can fit into a saucepan without touching the bottom. Put boiling water in the pan to a level where the bowl sits into it by about a centimetre. Put onto a low heat.

Add the egg yolk, vinegar and water. Whisk to mix.

Cut the butter into small cubes. Add a cube to the egg yolk mix and a stir with the whisk until it is dissolved. Continue adding the butter a cube at a time and stirring until it is dissolved before adding the next.

Season with salt and pepper and add the capers. Keep stirring.

The sauce is ready when it is thick and glossy and warm.

Take the bowl out of the hot water with a tea towel and dry it underneath.

Pour the sauce into a warm sauce boat and serve with the Shepherds Pie.